Legislators cautious about higher dropout age

SPRINGFIELD -- A bill to raise the age at which Illinois students can drop out of high school from 17 to 18 was approved by a state Senate committee Tuesday, but with misgivings.

DAVID THOMAS

SPRINGFIELD -- A bill to raise the age at which Illinois students can drop out of high school from 17 to 18 was approved by a state Senate committee Tuesday, but with misgivings.

While all of the senators who spoke on Senate Bill 3259 acknowledged the need to get students to stay in school, the 6-4 vote was split along party lines as to whether raising the age would get the job done.

There were even some mixed feelings on the part of the bill’s chief sponsor, Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood.

Lightford said she doesn’t want to increase the dropout age unless the state also provides more support for alternative schooling, truancy and workforce development programs. Lightford’s bill addresses only the dropout age.

“The response from the governor’s office was that they would be willing to put more support behind alternative programs and that they would be able to more support behind truancy,” Lightford said. “There has been discussion about how to increase the dropout age to 18 and provide additional support to our school districts at the same time.”

Jerry Stermer, an aide to Gov. Pat Quinn, said the governor strongly backs increasing the dropout age. Stermer said the legislation is part of a comprehensive approach to better educate the state’s youth.

Quinn wants to raise the percentage of Illinois adults who have some sort of post-high-school degree from 43 percent to 60 percent by 2025. Raising the dropout age would help that, Stermer said.

However, Sen. David Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, a former teacher, questioned whether 18 is the right age to allow students to drop out of school.

“Once they reach a point where they don’t want to be in school, there’s not a lot you can do with them,” Luechtefeld said. While alternative programs can work, he said, the bill would force students to stay in the same setting that they do not want to be in.

Luechtefeld also pressed Stermer for a commitment from the governor’s office to beef up funding for alternative schools.

“We are very open and very receptive to this discussion and possibility of improving our network of alternative schools,” Stermer said. But Luechtefeld noted there was no commitment in the bill.

“We could be ‘open to something’ for years,” he said.

William Leavy, the executive director of West Town Academy, an alternative school aimed at Chicago dropouts, described raising the dropout age as a “great goal, wrong strategy.”

“Students drop out of public schools for many reasons, none of which are addressed by compulsory attendance age,” Leavy said.

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called for every state to raise its dropout age to 18 this year

David Thomas can be reached at (217) 782-6292.

Elsewhere

According to a 2010 report from the Education Commission of the States, 20 states and the District of Columbia have a dropout age of 18.

Illinois is one of 11 states that allows students to drop out at 17. The other 19 states allow students to drop out at 16.